A Warm Welcome to Stableton [Social][Closed]

Starry stood waiting in front of the entrance to Stableton. She was tapping her hoof impatiently; she had arrived early, too early.

Several prominent residents had practically pleaded with her to convince her to give this tour. It hadn't been that long since the incident, but Starry was recovering quickly, becoming warmer by the day. Giving a bunch of strangers, wastelanders at that, a guided tour of the town was still outside her comfort zone, but she had reluctantly agreed.

She did come prepared. At her hip was sheathed her broadsword, and on the other side her hunting knife. She didn't expect they would be needed in the slightest, but the wastes had taught her to expect the unexpected.

For a moment, Starry wondered if they had got the message. The notice offered twenty caps as a reward for attending the introduction, which seemed like a hard deal to turn down. Her doubt began to melt, as she thought she spotted the first wastelander approaching.

Last edited by Starry Night on Mon Feb 25, 2013 2:57 am; edited 1 time in total

Floret didn’t care much for the town of Stableton, the town seemed haphazard and trashy, even for the wastes. A ragtag group of survivors with a bunch of greedy carrion traders looming over the resident’s ripe suffering. It was painfully obvious, but the residents were far too stupid to ever notice. Floret personally chalked it up to the amount of horrible races in the town. She had even heard that their law enforcement was saturated with pegasi.

Still, the pastel mare couldn’t really complain; there was no shortage of jobs for a talented scavenger such as herself in town, perhaps because it was so new in comparison to her normal frequents. The town was probably pretty desperate for any help it could get. The entire fact that someone had paid the unicorn just to take a tour of the town was evidence enough of how sad a state the town had. Floret certainly wasn’t going to turn such a painfully easy way to earn money, though.

The unicorn approached with a cocky and easygoing grin on her face as she approached the entrance. She chose to give the town a slight benefit of the doubt and assume that the unicorn waiting in front of the entrance was the tour guide. This would make Floret the seemingly first, or perhaps only, wastelander to show up for the tour. At least the town had been smart enough to get a unicorn to do the job. She gave the blue unicorn a small nod. While Floret couldn’t be positive that this was the tour guide she wasn’t about to make herself seem unsure by asking. She would instead wait to see if anypony else showed up for this surely shabby half-bit tour. Let them ask first.

Spirit flew in the sky over Stableton, looking down at the ground for somepony in particular. In his talons was an invite to have a lovely tour of the place, and an offer of caps he simply could not turn down. At the entrance he spotted a blue unicorn, who was alone. He wondered if she was the pony who was going to give the tour. Not too far from the lone pony was another, trotting in her direction. Slowly Spirit drifted to the ground, several feet away from the two hoping to not startle them by his entrance. Tucking in his wings and giving a friendly smile, the griffon walked up presenting himself mannerly.

"Good day to you," he said with a nod, the feathers on top bounced lightly. "Sorry to disturb you, but are you the tour guide?" he asked Starry, holding out his invitation in front of him.

Thunder looked at the invite again, for about the eighth time on her journey. The paper slightly darker when viewed through her aviators. Though she was used to the difference having worn them near constantly for nine years, she'd even got used to the crack in the right-side lens. Thunder had heard of Stableton. Just about everypony had, but she didn't know where exactly it was, and along the way had gotten lost several times, she had never been good with directions. Upon approaching the town she spotted two unicorns and a griffon outside, she figured they must live there, and she could ask them where the tour is taking place. So the Thunder approached the trio.

"Hey there! Can any of ya direct me to the tour... Ah got me an invite fer it or somethin', seems kinda random but ah always like havin' new places to find work." She briefly lifted her aviators to get a better look at the three, revealing her emerald green eyes for any paying enough attention, or caring enough to take note of such things. It was generally so she could see what they looked like without the shading of her glasses.

Last edited by Thunder Run on Sat Feb 23, 2013 8:46 pm; edited 1 time in total

Zyrene had heard of a tour going through a town called "Stableton" and had instantly made her way to reach it by hopping from caravan to caravan. She had made it to the town the night prior, but had stayed near where the group was supposed to meet up, just off to the side of the entrance, within the town. She fell asleep at some point during her wait, and was woken up by a small collection of voices near her. Yawning, she lifted her head up, letting the hood of her cloak fall down to reveal her stripped face. She blearily got up and made her way to the growing group, having no fear of this group being of the bad sort since she at the entrance of the town. Once she had reached the group, she sat down and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, making sure to keep an ear open to keep up with what was being said.

Quaari rolled her eyes again as she stalked towards the entrance of Stableton, still in disbelief she was actually doing this. The idea that she would normally participate in a dreary tour of the ramshackle collection of buildings that made up the most recent excuse for a settlement in the wasteland was foreign enough to leave a bad taste.

'It’s all about the caps,' she said softly to herself, trying to remind herself why she was doing this, and why she was tolerating stable ponies. Only stable ponies would have the caps to frivolously spend on a tour. Stable ponies either wised up quickly or didn’t last long in the wastes. But for now, it was to her advantage and she needed the caps.

Approaching the gate she spotted five other figures, three ponies, a zebra and a griffon. Unusual collection, she supposed. She hoped one of them was the guide, as she didn’t want to have to engage in inane chit-chat with them if she could avoid it. Coming close she gave a short nod before taking a closer look at the others. “Hi, here for the tour.” She noticed some of the others holding pieces of paper - What was that about? They had actually printed invitations to this thing? She rolled her eyes.

Green Pepper was hurting. Those three brutes that had stolen his caps just an hour prior had been quite rough with him, and he was lucky to escape with his life- or rather, his unlife.

The old gravedigger ghoul staggered to the front gate, noticing a group of ponies, griffins and a zebra gathered outside. He made his way slowly towards them, a hoof clapped to the deep gash in his side.

He hoped that one of these ponies would be able to help him to the doctors, although first, he would have to make a little money...

Nyamazi was moving at a decent trot through the streets of Stableton. She had spent the night before in the local tavern, and she had to say the this town wasn’t that bad. She hadn’t visited the town before, her parents hadn’t added it to their caravan route in the town’s short lifespan before she left. Although she suspected that they’d be adding it to their route soon, she recalled them making plans to that effect before she left.

It wasn’t as good as, say, Friendship City of New Appleloosa, but for a town that hasn’t even been around for two years it was surprisingly decent. She could see it turning into someplace really nice in a few years time...For the wasteland at least. Probably wouldn’t be as good as New Pegasus, but even in her few visits in her parent’s caravan trips to the Mohoofe she could tell that the city was a pretty special place.

She had payed the tavern keeper twenty caps for the night, The Chalkboard serving an effective tool as always for eliminating the one-way communication barrier that would normally exist. While she wasn’t exactly hurting from those twenty caps, her parents giving her at least a bit of spending money when she left (and those particular caps came from a stash she found that went into this and her ammo fund), she wouldn’t mind making them back somehow. And, as luck would have it, an opportunity quickly came up. An advertisement for a ‘Guided Tour’ of Stableton, open for all newcomers and visitors.

‘...They’re literally paying people to be given a tour of the town? Isn’t that usually the otherway around? Weird.’

Still, it wasn’t exactly like it was a job to go out and kill a raider nest or something. It was basically free money to be given a tour of the town, and she was at least a bit interested in the actual tour part. Plus it wouldn’t hurt getting the caps she spent on the tavern back.

Decided, she turned and started trotting towards where she remembered the gate was, or at least the one the notice was talking about. As she approached she saw the crowd gathering by it, and assumed she was in the right place. Considering the prevalence of pipbucks among the town’s citizens she assumed the one pony in the group with one, a blue unicorn mare with a pretty big sword, was the tour guide. And she seemed to be the center of attention for a few others as well.

Walking up to the group, she sat down and looked at the blue unicorn expectedly. She’d give a greeting of some sort, but for obvious reasons she couldn’t, and she felt that The Chalkboard would be a bit too awkward for something like that. So, she decided to sit in silence and nod if asked if she was part of the tour group.

Starry stood silently as the ponies approaching, tapping notes into her pipbuck. It might have seemed rude not to answer the questions of her guests, but they had arrived in such rapid succession that she barely had time to complete notes on one of them before the next one arrived.

"Alright, good," she said to herself, as the flow of wastelanders abruptly ceased, "I know a few of you asked, and yes, this is the tour of Stableton. My name is Starry Night, and I will be your guide."

Starry took a gander at the ponies, griffons and zebras that had come together for the tour. She raised an eyebrow at the little zebra filly who had come. She didn't expect somepony so young to be attending the tour.

"Before we start, I just want to explain very briefly that the reason we're holding this tour, and the reason you're being paid twenty caps is because some of the more affluent neighbors in this town are concerned about wastelanders like yourselves causing a mess while you're here. My job is to make you familiar with the place, get your names and show everyone your faces, and turn you into wholesome, happy residents instead of the sort of wasteland savages that some ponies in our town think you are. That means no murdering, stealing, looting, raping, or eating with your mouth open. All but one of those will put you at the wrong end of a gun."

Starry took a deep breath. 'So far so good,' she thought to herself sarcastically.

"So, now that we've got that out of the way... Who wants to make twenty caps?! Let's have a round of introductions. Who wants to go first?"

Zyrene finished rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and drew her entire attention to Starry. She balked a little when Starry asked for introductions. Of course she would ask for their names and such. She should've kept out of sight and followed the tour along. Being sleepy didn't make for the clearest thinking, apparently.

Still, she was here now, and being asked for this information. Deciding that trying to communicate wouldn't be worth the hassle, Zyrene pulled her hood over her head and laid down on the spot. With luck, they would overlook her and start the tour without trying to get her to talk.

Thunder listened to Starry's little introduction to the town. Her first opinion being that perhaps it's residents thought a little too highly of themselves. "Wasteland savages? Seems more like the sorta reception ah'd get if ah wandered up to Tenpony." She thought to herself. Though she decided to keep the thought in her head for now, perhaps there was a reason these ponies thought they were so much better than anypony else trying to make a living out in the wastes.

When the question of names was thrown out Thunder piped up quickly. "Names Thunder Run, missy, just Thunder, or Thunder Run... No need fer any fancy titles or some such. Ah come from New 'Loosa in case anyponies interested in such details, an' ah'm a merc by trade... Anythin' else y'all wanna know just ask, but ah think that about covers the basics."

Nyamazi raised an eyebrow as ‘Starry Night’ elaborated on why exactly this tour was being held, and what certain ponies in the town thought of the wastelanders that came to it.

‘...Well, this puts the pay we’re getting in a slightly different light. What, have they been getting nothing but raiders here the past few days or something? Do they think the favorite pastimes of a majority of the wasteland outside of here include those?...Ok, actually they probably are, but it’s kinda easy to spot those kind of ponies and shoot them on sight.’

She shook her head, mostly to herself. Only the snobbiest of the ponies at Tenpony were that bad, assuming everyone outside their tower were monsters and rapists. Again, granted, about 80% of them were, but the other 20% were usually fine.

Regardless Nyamazi doubted that the majority of the ponies here thought that. From what she’s seen most of them seemed nice, and not xenophobic snobs.

In the end Nyamazi wasn’t particularly concerned about what must have been a small portion of Stableton thought, as long as she was getting payed and hopefully getting an enjoyable tour she’d be fine.

‘...Also, is it just me, or did she put a heavy emphasis on the ‘Rape’ part of that list of ‘fun’ activities?’

When their tour guide asked for introductions Nyamazi instantly pulled out The Chalkboard. Sticking a stick of chalk between her lips she started writing something down on the board while the others gave out their introductions, keeping an ear and and listening to what they said while doing so. She’d need a little more time to get her own ready, so she was prepared to go last.

Floret took a half step back in surprise, a look of shock and disgust crossing her face as she stared at Starry. What the hay kind of greeting was this?! She had gotten better from a filthy diamond dog after her first hoofstep into the town. It wasn’t that the pastel unicorn didn’t realize that all of these things (especially chewing with one’s mouth open) were horrible and very real wasteland occurrences. She wasn’t naïve or an idiot. But to be so bluntly accused and threatened in such a way after being asked to take time out of her own life to come here? 20 caps was pocket change compared to what she could be earning by scavenging random scrap metals right about now! Besides, herself excluded the group gathered before clearly wasn’t the brightest bunch, but they certainly didn’t seem quite dumb enough to try any of the stated offenses while in in such a large group!

On second thought, the griffons probably were that stupid.

“I assure you that ‘making a mess’ never even crossed my mind!” Floret huffed, as though mortally wounded by the very suggestion. “I mean, really. Does your town of ‘wholesome, happy residents’ have such a huge problem with such disgusting barbarians…” Her gaze wandered across the griffons and zebras present as she continued to speak without pause. Not that all zebras were horrible creatures, of course. Just unfortunate. “…that you must assume everypony who crosses your doorstep wishes you harm?” She asked, mentally adding a quick and snide ”Or is somepony just little miss high and mighty?” inside her own head.

“Do not worry about it; I forgive you. Just please be more considerate with your accusations. Are you not representing Stableton? You should strive to be a role model, my friend! A show of why ponies should become a part of your quaint town!” She gave a wide, amiable smile and gestured in the general direction of those present. It was, after all, a unicorn’s duty as the master race to guide the more unfortunately born to an extent.

“My name” the flower pony said as she finally started to introduce herself. “Is Floret. I’m from New Appleloosa. It is a pleasure to meet you all.” She beamed.

"Even the ones too rude to answer our host. Even the ones who smell like month old dead cat dipped in fetid radiated water...." She began silently listing off to herself as she waited for the others' introductions.

Starry raised an eyebrow at Floret. "Nice to meet you, Thunder Run. Cute name," she gave him a nod before turning back to Floret to address her.

"Look, I'm not trying to launch any accusations here," Starry responded, somewhat apologetically. "I've seen Stable ponies half your size and ten times more vile than I'm sure any single one of you could hope to be, and I've seen the worst of both worlds. And I don't think any of the people asking me to do this would think you're uncivilized savages if they met you in person, but they'd rather be safe than sorry. The wastes are prone to punish you for being careless."

Green sucked in another breath. As he grew closer to the group, he saw that they were listening to a unicorn, who seemed to be a guard or official of some kind. Not wantinting to get drawn into something that he was not prepared for, he chose to remain quiet and watch the procedings.

The others around him were a mixture of zebras, ponies and griffins. One female griffin in particular eyed him nastily as he lurked at the edge of the crowd. A small zebra filly crouched in the shade, pawing at her eyes as she tried to stay out of sight.

The official seemed to be listing the rules of the town, which were exactly as anyone would expect: no theivery, no rape, no murder. The last one seemed frivilous, but he mostly ignored that. There did seem to be a certain undertone directed at insulting the group, but after centuries of suffering, the mocking tone had zero affect on him.

As the unicorn finished, a rather cute pony wearing cracked sunglasses spoke up, but he didn't catch her name. Immediately after, a rather snobbish sounding unicorn spoke up, looking down her nose at the unfortunate official as she berated her. She was obviously affecetd by the thin taunt.

The first unicorn started to babble, apologizing for her rudeness. Green grimaces again as his side lurches with pain. For a second, his vision darkens, and he stumbles into the side of another zebra. He needs to find a pool of radiation, fast.

As Starry began speaking Spirit sat up tall, watching her make her introductions and talk about the rules of the town. All of which seemed reasonable. He looked amongst the group, seeing two zebra, two unicorns, one earth pony, another griffon and a ghoul. The smallest Zebra began to hide as Starry spoke of introductions. Spirit thought perhaps she was rather shy, and this was an adorable way to express it. The other zebra who took out her writing utensils, gave the Spirit the impression she had patience. You had to be in a certain way at least, if you could only speak by writing it down. The first pony spoke who was an Earth Pony. He took note of her green fur, broken glasses and brownish hair. She seemed friendly, but only time would tell. 'Thunder Run....' he thought to himself, memorizing her name.The other unicorn began to introduce herself, and already seemed irritated at the beginning of the day. He crossed his arms and waited patiently for her to speak her mind. A pause began, and Spirit felt this was his turn to speak. He raised his talons and spoke aloud, but in a calm tone to make sure he gave off being a friendly Griffon.

"My name is Spirit. Survivor of being a slave and of many other things. It is good to meet new acquaintances who will hopefully become friends! As for my occupation? I could go on and on but then I would be wasting time for others to speak." he nodded his head at Starry, Thunder and Floret who have all spoken. He was sure they knew what he meant by it. He didnt want to speak of his occupation. Being an assassin made things complicated, and announcing it would be rather stupid.

Quaari frowned as the guide; a blue unicorn called Starry went into a welcome spiel, expecting some sort of tired routine. The introduction however was not like that, and she then grinned, “Wasteland savages,” she chuckled, “you gotta be kidding me.”

She didn’t put forward her own name at first, deciding it was better to determine what sort of company she was keeping. She stood back and a bit away from the unusual staggering ghoul; she had no like of the near-feral sort of dead things. After she felt she was far enough away from it, she turned and scrutinized each individual with a critical eye

Thunder seemed okay, she supposed, mercenaries were okay by her standards, even if the mare did talk too much.

She gave a firm look at Floret from New Appleloosa, raising a curious brow that two of the ponies that had now introduced themselves were from the town. When the unicorn casually called them disgusting barbarians, she thought about saying something, but instead shrugged. Let them say whatever they wanted, as long as they didn’t give the griffon trouble, maintained a suitable level of respect, and kept their distance; she couldn’t care less what they thought of her. Quaari groaned slightly at Floret’s saccharine ‘pleasure to meet you all’, how inane.

She glanced at Spirit and had to suppress a chuckle, he’d been a slave? What the heck kind of griffon got themselves in that sort of predicament? He didn’t look pathetic enough to be a slave in her experience, but then the words had come from his beak. As for listing his occupation, she interpreted his words quickly, I have no job, because I was a slave and have no saleable skills. Pathetic indeed.

During a momentary pause, she chimed in with her introduction to get it out of the way. “Quaari. Not sure how long I’ll be here in town. I’m from that-a-way.” She waved a talon in the direction of the wasteland.

Starry took note of Spirit's introduction. She never stopped tapping notes into her pipbuck, but she spoke up to respond to him. "Former slave, huh? I share your pain. You'll be happy to know that slavers are typically kill-on-site in this town, from what I've come to understand."

She then looked to Quaari, and took a short sigh before explaining to her, "Look, I wasn't serious about the savages thing. I was mocking the people who asked me to do this. They don't really think that, not to that extent, and I was hoping you'd all pick up on the sarcasm."

“As far as I am concerned, you are already forgiven.” Floret dismissed sweetly and with a sweeping gesture. “Just be more careful. If I were a, perish the thought, horrible wasteland savage, I probably would have shot you. I only want you to stay safe, dear.” And it was true, she told herself. A pony as kind as young Floret wouldn’t dream of wish harm on anypony for an unjust reason. Especially when allowing them to come under harm held the chance of hurting her reputation.

Speaking of reputation.

The unicorn watched the others introduced themselves, but got distracted by something as the second griffon was trying to act tough. Floret arched a brow towards a slow lurching object as the Stableton unicorn continued explaining her “joke” (though Floret was positive it wasn’t nearly as much of a joke as Mrs. Four-Eyes would have them believe. There had been too much emphasis and feeling in a certain word…) in the background. It had taken the unicorn a moment to realize that staggering mass of worthless fetid flesh was in fact a ghoul. Ugh, Ghouls were disgusting; a shambling mass of rotting carcasses too stupid to realize that they were dead. Just what the wasteland brute peanut gallery needed. Still; a chance to make herself look good and show how she was the best pony in the group shouldn’t be carelessly wasted.

Even if she just really wanted to shoot the disgusting creature.

“You’re hurt!” She gasped, quickly galloping up and attempting to keep the ghoul stable with magic (Though she didn’t try particularly hard, and certainly didn’t get too close. Ugh, Floret had thought that the stupid cat-piss griffon had smelled terrible, but this was somehow even worse!) after he had accidently tripped into one of the two useless and incredibly rude zebras. Floret didn't really like getting so close to a possibly feral creature, but the zebra was closer and far more helpless, clearly a superior first target should the shambling body intend harm.

“Is anypony here a medic? I motion that we should start the tour by going to whatever medical facility is within the town.” She asked, loud enough for the group to hear her.

After all. The faster they got this ghoul to a doctor, the more important it’s existence would appear to be to Floret, and more importantly the faster a certain generous purple unicorn would be able to distance herself as much as possible from the stupid smelly zombie.

Nyamazi was continuing to write on The Chalkboard, the sounds of chalk scratching on board filling the air around the zebra. She glanced up every now and then as the others game their introductions, ears perked as she listened intently, multitasking that and writing her own introduction.

She hadn't notice the ghoul stumble into the group until he was stumbling into her, knocking her and The Chalkboard over. If she had working vocal cords she probably would have 'eeped' at the from the tumble, but lacking them her fall was completely silent aside from the sound of her body kicking up dust on the ground. She blinked and shook her head as she quickly regained her bearings, before looking up at the ghoul who knocked her over. He, at least she assumed it was a he, kinda hard to tell with ghouls, was being supported by the magical field of that other unicorn in the group ‘Florat Fadaise’.

Nyamazi slowly got to her hooves, keeping a cautious eye on the ghoul. He didn’t look feral, but he hasn’t said a word yet and you could never be too sure. If it started snarling she was ready to whip out her rifle and shoot it, but hopefully it wouldn’t come to that. She picked The Chalkboard off from the ground, clutching it in the crook of her foreleg. Luckily the text on it didn’t appear to be marred at all.

She glanced over at Florat when she suggested they visited a medical facility first. Nyamazi nodded in agreement and turned towards their tour guide, an expectant look on her face as she waited for the blue mare to agree. She doubted she wouldn’t, unless this really was a feral ghoul there was no reason to just leave him here.

Thunder felt a little bad for Spirit and Starry at the mention of being slaves. She hadn't experienced such a thing herself, bus she'd heard stories, and wouldn't wish such a thing upon anypony. Her interest had also been perked as Floret had mentioned that she was from New Appleoosa as well, she had never seen the other mare around, but that didn't really mean anything. The other griffon, Quaari didn't seem like one to mess with, but Thunder couldn't help but wonder if it was more bark than bite, she shrugged to herself at the though, not exactly that bothered on finding out.

Thunder's train of thought was interrupted as Floret suddenly sprang into action however, the mare apparently wanting to help the ghoul in their little group. Thunder could have put the ghouls stumble to many things, dehydration, starvation, tiredness... Though Thunder had no idea if any of those things affected ghouls either, so kept to herself for the most part. She looked as the unicorn made it clear the ghoul needed to see a doctor, it was all very different from her previous stuck-up attitude... Which meant to Thunder that either the mare had spontaneous changes in behavior, or she was trying to appear nicer than she really was. But again she kept this to herself, bringing her attention back to Spirit, the griffon had said that telling his job was a long story.

She stepped over to the griffon as Floret was causing her little scene, not standing beside him, but near, within talking distance. "Hey uhh, Spirit... Ya gone peaked my curiosity by tellin' us all ya jobs a long'un. Ah sure would like to hear it if ya don't mind saying." "She looked at the griffon through her glasses, feeling a little intimidated just talking to him, and the next part came out all to quickly to sound casual. "If ya don't wanna that's fine though, ah understand if it's somethin' ya don't wanna tell the world."

Green suddenly found himself caught up in a shimmering aura of magic. One any other day, he would have lashed out, perhaps shot the unicorn. Several years ago, he had been attacked by a raider with magic. He did not want to go through that again.

However, this time he simply leaned on the surprisingly weak support. He heard the prissy unicorn speak loudly about a doctor, which calmed him down significantly. He saw the revulsion in her eyes, which confused him, but he let it slide.

He looked ove at the silent zebra he had knocked over, painfully aware of every eye upon him. He nodded to her, speaking in a low voice.

"Ah'm sahrry, miss. Di-in't mean ter stahtle yuh." He hated his voice. Several centuries of poor living conditions had fused a few of his vocal cords together, making his already 'country bumpkin' accent even more pronounced, and distorting his words until it was nigh impossible to understand him.

He felt their condemning and suspicious eyes upon him, even as he looked towards the dirt like a whipped, tired old dog. It was like this everywhere he went. Nopony ever seemed to see the pony behind the rot, the kind personality behind the feral grin. No, he had to earn the right to even a simple smile, time and time again.

Such was the way of this world. Nopony trusted for no reason. Those that do are taken advantage of, or disappear one day, never to be seen from again. Life goes on, and if anything had been learned during all those years, it was that one lesson.

Eventually, he had stopped caring. His family was dead, he was treated like a monster, and feared. At one point he had considered giving up. But his old pa had a saying: 'Son, yah see them there taters? Thems are in the ground now, and when Ah dig 'em up, they may be rotten. Aye, and the next one too. But just remember. If ya continue to plant, an' wait patient-like, y'all eventually get a good crop'

And so, he kept going, waiting for the good crop. And now he had it. A nice house, a paying job, a mare with a smile that just wouldn't quit. He was living the life, and for once, he was feelinbg happy again. All he needs to do now is suffer through this tiny bit, and he can cuddle up with Swift Arrow under the cloudy nighttime sky in his cemetary.

Starry rolled some ideas around in her head. The clinic would be the ideal place to take the pony, if the didn't know what was wrong with him. But it didn't take a doctor to know that the cure-all for ghouls was radiation.

"Actually," she responded to Floret, "Our first destination will be the water treatment facility." That was, of course, where Stableton's water talisman was kept. It wasn't a relic that most would trust in the presence of new arrivals, but even after what she'd been through, Starry was still willing to trust. Besides, the thing was pretty well secured. It's not like a pony could just walk up and step on it.

"This way," Starry said, before trotting up to Green Pepper and lifting his arm over her back, to help him trot. "And feel free to introduce yourselves on the way, for those of you who didn't get the chance."

Quaari gave an angry groan. What stupid creature turned up to a town guided tour injured? Clearly the ghoul’s brains were beginning to rot, and with it, sense. Before she could offer to put it out of its misery, the light-purple unicorn, Little Miss Sunshine decided that they needed to help the ghoul and take him to the medical centre. Great, more time wasted, while she waited for the caps from this tour to be forthcoming. What an irritating busy-body Floret seemed to be.

Glaring at Floret, Quaari caught Thunder asking Spirit about his previous employment, and her attention was quickly diverted. She supressed a grin, and leant just a little closer, interested to hear what he had to say. This little bit of discussion had her interest piqued; there were only so many ways someone could say ‘no job’ after all.

And then, all of a sudden they were heading for the water treatment facility, Starry declaring it to be the first destination. The tour was underway at last, and that made Quaari happy.

Zyrene had momentarily stunned when the injured ghoul had come into town, prompting Floret to rush t him and call for a medic. Ghouls were always fascinating to Zyrene, since medically they were supposed to be dead and yet continued to thrive instead. And this one was injured enough to be asking for help. This was a medical moment that was too good to pass up for her.

Once Starry had taken the ghoul under her care and started moving, declaring the water treatment facility be their first stop, Zyrene was shaken out of her stupor, causing her to mentally slap herself at freezing up. Here was an injured patient requiring medical attention and she was freezing up. Unacceptable.

Still, Floret had done something with her magic to help stabilize the ghoul, so that much was good. And Zyrene hadn't come into town prepared to handle injured patients. With nothing really to help the ghoul with, Zyrene was forced to walk closer to him and Starry and watch what would happen. She was both angry at herself and excited. A ghoul's healing would be a fascinating event to witness. She only wished she had been better prepared for it.